E45: The Book You Haven't (Yet) Written With Trevor Crane

We are all in search for that one thing we can do to take our marketing to the next level.

What is that missing component that can be the game changer we are searching for?

Trevor Crane has the answer.

In this episode of the Neon Noise podcast, 10 time best selling author Trevor Crane joins us to share how writing a book is the most powerful tool for you to use in your marketing.

I know what some of you might be saying, UGH...

I don't want to write a book. I don't have time to write a book. I don't even know where to start.

You are in luck and, chances are, these three barriers are quickly removed during our in-depth conversation with Trevor. He takes us through a fast-paced conversation riddled with examples and stories that helps to connect all the dots.

Some of the areas we dive into include:

Why every business owner should write a book

How to write the right book

4 key questions to ask yourself that provides clarity for writing your book

Why you need a mentor

How to get started writing your book

A special offer for his upcoming event

and much more!

Special Offer for Neon Noise Listeners

In addition to the free book, Trevor is also giving away FREE tickets to his upcoming conference in Tampa, Florida. Once you get the book, you can register and receive a free ticket for yourself and a guest.

We hope our conversation with Trevor will help you understand the reasons you should write your own book and use it as the keystone in your marketing efforts.

Resources

Transcript

0:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Neon Noise Podcast. Your home for learning ways to attract more traffic to your website, generate more leads, convert more leads into customers, and build stronger relationships with your customers. And now, your hosts, Justin Johnson and Ken Franzen.

0:00:15 Justin Johnson: Hey, Neon Noise Nation. This is the Neon Noise Podcast where we decode marketing and sales topics to help you grow your business. What's up, everyone? This is Justin Johnson. With me, I have my co-host, Mr. Ken Franzen. Ken, what's going on today?

0:00:28 Ken Frazen: Not too much, Justin. Excited to talk with out guest today. We originally had him scheduled right when that hurricane was going through Florida, and I know that you and I had some concerns about it. We asked him to reschedule and just chatting with Trevor Crane here before we got started to hit the record button, he's from Tampa, so he was down there in that mix too.

0:00:50 JJ: Make you feel a little bit of that love for the week.

0:00:53 KF: You're unburied. I think you got lucky, and luckier than maybe some of your neighbors, but good to have you back into the internet world and glad we got this rescheduled to chat today.

0:01:07 JJ: Yes, it's good to be back. Obviously an unexpected hurricane to go through the middle of the state, but it did, and it knocked us down for a week. But we're back to rocking and rolling. So, as you said, today we will be speaking with Trevor Crane. He's a 10-time bestselling author and founder of Epic Author Publishing. Trevor specializes in helping business owners, speakers, coaches, and consultants elevate their brand and take their business to the next level. He helps you become irresistible to your ideal target client and consistently grow leads, sales, and revenue. Trevor can help you write your book in 90 days or less, and turn it into the most powerful marketing tool that you have. Trevor, it's good to have you on the show today. Welcome to Neon Noise.

0:01:52 Trevor Crane: Nice to be here, guys, and we managed to survive the hurricane as well. Although I do have a 10-foot gaping hole in my ceiling, that I'm not thrilled with, from some water damage, but I'll deal.

0:02:05 JJ: That sucks.

0:02:06 TC: Nice to be here.

0:02:07 JJ: That's horrible. Leave that wrapped up and figure it out. Do me a favor and share with us a little bit about your background.

0:02:14 TC: Well let me see here. On my... I think... Did you ever see the movie The Jerk with Steve Martin?

0:02:19 JJ: Yeah.

0:02:20 KF: Yeah.

0:02:21 TC: All right, so I think on my Facebook profile, my assistant was teasing me the other day. She's like, "You still have on there, 'I was born a poor black child,'" [laughter] and she was like, "You're as white as you can possibly be." And so I grew up in Arizona, I'm the son of a horse shoer. My biggest fear when I was growing up was that I'd never amount to anything 'cause all my friends were rich, or richer than me, and I thought I was the poor kid. My mom made my clothes, and I was embarrassed by that. Now I'm embarrassed that I was such a little ungrateful jackass when [laughter] I was little, but I grew up thinking... I grew up trying to beat the man, and I learned to lie, cheat, and steal, and try to push hard. And then I had to get slapped down a few times and I was just scared. I was scared because... Well, my stepdad was a roofer and he wasn't the most loving and nurturing and richest [chuckle] dude in the neighborhood. So I had challenges, and so I went to school, got my college degree. I wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, so I felt like I had to work harder than everybody else, but it happened and I'm like, "They now taught me how to be successful." Yeah. Yeah, that didn't happen. So my real business success started happening when I started hiring mentors.

0:03:39 TC: I found someone else who had created the result before me and I followed their path, and sometimes I was slow and I got tons of stories about that that we can jump into, but I eventually figured it out and I figured it out by getting help, and that's what I now do for a living. And I, at one point... It's cool that you said I've got 10 books and they're all best sellers and now I help people do that and I'm very proud of that, I have to say, but very honored and humble because it took me 20 years to publish my first book. I thought books were easy, it's words on paper, what kind of monkey can't do that? Well, apparently not me for 20 years. [chuckle] So I had to actually buckle down and ask for help and swallow my pride and my ego and say, "Can you help me?" And I found a mentor who was really good at creating results and I could talk about that or we can talk about anything, but I think think there's a really important thing when you find the right mentor who's created results for others. Not just that they're a badass, but that they've got a history of creating other badasses. So that's what I found and then I think that made our process even better, and now I help people with that every single day.

0:04:51 KF: Awesome. Let's actually dive into that mentor that helped you write that first book because it is important to follow someone who's made the mistakes, created the blueprint, and... There's no sense in trying to fumble around in the dark trying to find the light switch when the light's on in the next room. You can just walk through the door. So yeah, tell us a little bit more about this mentor, how you chose the mentor and how it benefited you.

0:05:20 TC: So my grandfather passed away before... Right before his 92nd birthday, and before that happened, he... I'd been trying to be a pen pal with him and I asked him a question about... As he was on his death bed 'cause he wasn't probably gonna get out, and his daughter had to write a letter for him. I asked him about his happiest moments, what were his favorite memories and his greatest accomplishments, and he basically wrote me a letter and it ended up being the last letter he ever sent me and it inspired me. What I found in there was what I thought was the keys to greatness, like to living a great quality of life. And it's not like you said, "Trevor, this is the formula." He just said, "These were my happiest moments," and I ended up... Or, "These were the special moments that I am most proud of," and I thought... I found some patterns in there, and then what I did is... And I was never ready. So I thought, "This would make a great book, this would make a great podcast. I should start talking about this," and I didn't do it for a year or two and he passed away. And one of his big regrets when he passed was that he hadn't published a book and so I took action. One day I just got up and I am like, "That's it, I'm gonna start my own podcast."

0:06:38 TC: So I started a podcast called Greatness Quest based on my grandfather's last letter, and that letter... I learned three things from that letter that I thought gave people a great quality of life. Always be on purpose. Always be present, not thinking... In all my grandfather's memories, it wasn't like he was thinking he wanted to be someplace else. He was always doing something he was passionate about, they're all "P" words. Doing something he was passionate about, feeling like he was with people that loved and that he was very present. He was present in the moment, loving or enjoying whatever it was he had done, and so I know that you asked me about my mentor and whatnot, but that was part of it. I needed a stimulus to kind of kick me in the ass, and that was one and I got... And the video, the first video I made for this, if you ever go back and see it, I'd been growing my hair out and I have really thin [chuckle] freaking hair. And at the time, I'd bet my family I was gonna grow out my hair. I have awful hair, I have that cold sore right on my freaking chin pointing at the world, and I did this video and I ripped it. I didn't make it perfect, I just freaking ripped it and it became the first episode of my podcast, which I've now published for a few years now. And on one of those podcasts, I interviewed the guy I am telling you about, who became my book mentor.

0:07:55 TC: And at the time, I had been what I thought was somewhat a successful entrepreneur, I had had my podcast, I had written manuscripts before I thought I had written my book. I had the whole idea of it, but I'd never published it. And I was doing a podcast just like you guys are now, the dude inspired me. He wrote his first book when he was going through cancer treatments, and he was on his death bed, looking at his wife that he was leaving behind and his son, and saying, "What am I leaving behind?" and what he did regret and he said that he regretted not writing a book. And so instead of making excuses, and he had every reason to, going through chemo, he had only one minute... Or excuse me, one hour of lucidity a day when he wasn't vomiting into a bucket or watching his hair fall out, and he pulled out his phone and he said, "No more excuses," and he told his story into his phone and he transcribed that into his first book. And that book made him seven figures, the business behind it, and then he did it again and he did it again, and then he mentored others. And as I interviewed him as like you guys are now interviewing me, I was like, "Dude, did you just help me?" I finally was... 'Cause I was bragging. Even though I'm the interviewer, "I've got my own book and I've done some stuff and you've helped me... " That was bullshit.

0:09:08 TC: It wasn't bullshit, it was true, "I'd been following for a while and I liked him, but I hadn't hired him." [chuckle] And I'd followed his stuff and I knew intellectually what to do, but I hadn't done it until I hired him. And then my wife and I, I got all fired up, guys, I was excited to publish my book and I figured it out. 'Cause I now have a mentor who's done it and made big money and he's helped other people do it too, and I got all excited, and I like to talk about my dreams and stuff, and I'm doing it with my wife on a Saturday. And I'm like, "Honey, we figured it out. I hired Mike and we're gonna... I'm gonna write a bestselling book, you're gonna write a bestselling book. It's not just going to be a national bestseller, we're gonna make it an international bestseller and all our clients from now on, everybody is going to have bestselling books. Our daughter," she was five or six at the time, "she's gonna have a bestselling book. We're gonna nail this." And all I did was piss her off. She thinks I'm crazy sometimes, like I'm like, "Let's build a hotel on the moon." [laughter] And we got in a fight and I said... And I got out of the car pissed 'cause she's not supporting me, she's like, "This is not the time and don't put that on me." And I'm like, "Ah," and I'm angry, she's angry, and I realized I needed to calm the hell down and be a nice guy.

0:10:19 TC: So I came back two minutes later and apologized for being a jackass, but this is one of the times that I can say, "I told you so." [chuckle] I don't get many of those opportunities, I'm typically wrong when it comes to an agreement... Or a disagreement with my wife. But in the first year, we both published our books, working with mike, we added a zero to the back of our income. So anybody listening right now, imagine the most money you've ever made and then add a zero to the back of that, and if you like that result, that's what I got when we learned to use books and we got our books out. I wrote my first book in 24 hours, I got it done. My wife took more like 6 months, and then I did it again and I did it again, and now all my clients... I set a goal last year, fast forward a few years here, last year I made a goal from October to December, I gave a 90-day goal, I said, "I'm gonna publish personally, me and my family, 10 books between now and the end of the year." And that was some from my daughter and some from my wife and a co-opted project, some other stuff. We published 10 books between October and December of last year. We made a ton of money in that timeframe and I made the goal to set... To help a hundred new authors publish their books, and we're rapidly approaching that goal of having help them publish their book and turning it into their most powerful marketing tool.

0:11:43 KF: Great story, so you sparked a series of questions I have now because, for starts, writing a book, it seems like this mountainous task that so many people, I think, have in the back of their mind, "I'd love to do this," but, much like what you faced, they're like, "How in the heck do I ever get this done? When do I find time?" And then you'd give the example of your mentor only having a day, an hour per day, so obviously it can be done, but I think it's the fear of actually going through and trying to eat this elephant not knowing how... Where the first bite lies, right? So we'll start up with why write a book, what's the power in a book for someone, and we can take it from there.

0:12:32 TC: All right. Why write a book? Well if you're in business and you don't have a book, you're missing the most powerful marketing tool. You've got the positions, you're... Everybody can write this down, I think this is the reason why, there's four words for you: Authority, credibility, trust, and desire. There is nothing like a book that establishes those four things. If you do... If you write the right book and there's a caveat, you're just having some piece of junk book out there, it's not it. [chuckle] That is not it. You gotta write a dream book, the book that really establishes your brand and your mission and what you find most important, what you're best at, and that's confusing 'cause everybody has a lot of books in them. You have one, two, five, 10, I don't know how many, but now you gotta choose. So a book establishes authority, credibility. It builds trust. In a book, you share not just what your excellent at, but you share your vulnerability. Even today, I didn't send... Beat my chest and say, "Look how cool I am and all the cool stuff I did." Yeah, I got that in there, [chuckle] Justin gave that on the intro, "Hey, man, Trev's done this and Trev's done that," you need that, but I also filed a $2.2 million bankruptcy at one stage and a few years ago I thought, "Who the hell would ever wanna listen to me, my dumb ass, again?" I thought I was a liar and I felt like I lied. I didn't mean to.

[laughter]

0:13:55 TC: But when you borrow money and don't pay it back, isn't that a lie? I think they call that stealing. I thought I'd go to jail. I didn't know you're even allowed to not pay off a credit card debt or a car or whatnot, and I learned, by the way, if you try to lock up your vehicle in your garage, they'll freaking break in and take it. [laughter] When they're repossessing stuff, and when you park it down the end of the street, they'll find it and take that one too. But my ego was knocked into the dirt, my self-worth was totally aligned with my net worth, and I thought I had nothing. And then when I was a young man, younger, I thought, "Who'd ever wanna listen to me?" And then my stories at the time, whatever. Who wanted to hear from me? And I had an idea about a book for this, an idea about a book for that, so I made every excuse under the sun, but I was asked on a podcast here recently, if I could go back in time, what age would I visit myself and what advice would I give myself. And I said I'd go back to me when I was about 20 and I would tell myself two things. I'd say, "Write a book... " Publish a book, don't write it, publish a book as soon as possible, right now, in the next six months, and start a podcast, even though back then I don't know that we had podcast. I'd say, "As soon as they make the word podcast, create a podcast." [chuckle]

0:15:09 TC: But draw a line in the sand about whatever it is that you think you're passionate about, and you don't have to be great at it yet, you can still go interview people who you think are awesome about money, marshmallows, whatever you wanna do, and then draw a line in the sand because there is no better business-building branding tool, in my opinion, than a book. There's a great book, I think they call it the Good Book, people look at the Bible... People see the printed word, there's something powerful about it, and if you're gonna call baloney on me, look at Tony Robbins. In the last decade, and I went to my first Anthony Robbins event in 2002, so 15 years ago, there were 1,500 people in that audience, it was blowing me away, Tony was a rockstar then and he's a rockstar now. Although today, I think a couple of months ago I went to his most recent event, there were 15,000 people at that event. Tony hasn't published a book, not one, in that timeframe between when I went and the event just recently except the last two years, he published 'Money Master: The Game' year one and then he published his new book, what's it called, 'Unshakable.' Year after year, he works with some of my book mentors. There's not a coincidence. That book he leveraged into one of his most powerful marketing tools and he gives it away for free.

0:16:31 TC: And he looks like Jesus when he's doing it, God bless him, but it's like it can be used. Now most people that write a book suck at it. They suck at writing the right book, they suck at marketing it, they suck at promoting it, and they suck at making money with it, and I know that 'cause I have hundreds of people every year that come to me now and they say, "What the hell am I going to with this? It is not working. I don't know how to use it." So if you know how to use it, it can be, but a book is also like a powerful tool like a chainsaw; if you don't know how to use it and you just leave it in your garage, especially in Florida, what's gonna happen to that chainsaw if it just sits there and you don't use it?

0:17:05 KF: It's gonna rust up.

0:17:07 TC: Rust up, useless tool, that's what you've got and you have to throw that thing away, and that's what happens when people write the wrong book, which is why now I have two new books that are out. One is called 'How to Write the Right Book Fast' and then the other one is 'How to Make Big Money with Your Book'. I'm doing a big promotion and I'd love to give that as a gift to all audience; if they wanna learn how to get inspired and make money with a book, that'll give them some of the how. So we're gonna cover as much as that we can today, but you asked one simple question, I don't shut the hell up. Did I answer the why I think a book is so important?

0:17:39 KF: No, I think you did. I think you did. And before we jump into big money with your book, I'm curious on how to write the right book because I think that's something that's important maybe to scratch a surface on, but determining how to write... 'Cause just writing a book period, saying I'm a published author does have some credibility alone; if you're gonna get up and speak in front of a group of people and they... "Hey, I'm an author," "Great," and so they give you some... A nod of credibility, even not ever having read your book, but to write the right book obviously has a lot more impact. How do you go about figuring out what the right book... Or how to write the right book?

0:18:22 TC: All right, great question. So first of all, I got all fired up and started writing my books when I was 20, and then I got excited again to do it when I was 25, and I got excited again and I tried it when I was 30, then I put it on my New Year's resolution list and tried again when I was 35, and I tried it again when I was 36, and I tried it when I was 37, I tried it... You get in the pattern... I took action writing the wrong book, wasting my time, trying to get pregnant just masturbating. Running on the treadmill trying to run a marathon, it just didn't work. So it's really important to get clarity first. So when my friend Mike was on his cancer bed, or when I finally got clarity around my book and I wrote my first book and became a best seller in 24 hours, when we first launched the book, I wrote it in 24 hours. How did I do that? I got clarity first around four questions that I'm gonna give everybody right now, you can ask and answer. Now, my only caveat here, I'm giving this to everybody, is... They're badass questions, they're totally the ones that you could spend a lot of money on, that you invest me in and I'll help you ask and answer these questions, and I'll make sure that they're all dialed in. But my caveat here is you're about to get advice that I typically charge a shit ton of money for it.

0:19:38 TC: So, appreciate the insight I'm gonna share with you as though you just spent money on it because if you get free advice, you typically value it based on what you paid for it. I knew every A-hole I grew up with that was already talented at something, at sports, man, they just pissed away what they got for free. I had to work my ass off to get things, and then I respected it once I got it. When people get free advice, they're like, "Man, what's wrong with this?" [chuckle] So it's an unconscious thing. So I just ask you and your audience and every listening right now, just take this and actually see that you invested 10 grand in it, you'd freaking respect that advice.

0:20:13 KF: Absolutely.

0:20:15 TC: Okay. So all that wasted time could have been saved, and if you're writing your book now and you get all fired up and you're like, "That's it, I'm gonna write a book," get help. My first advice is find a mentor, get some help, and don't just try to do it yourself. You wouldn't go build a dream house yourself. You might get... Because you might get be all fired up and it's like, "Man, writing's easy. I got a great story, I wanna tell it. I'll start writing my journal every day. I'll stay up late, I'll get up early." And you go start writing your book, that's like going in the backyard and nailing two-by-fours together thinking you're building a dream house. You might be getting a sunburn, you may build up a sweat, and you might be building a great dog house, but there ain't nothing you're building in your backyard that's going in your dream house.

0:20:55 KF: Sure.

[chuckle]

0:20:57 TC: That isn't it. Instead you would go to an architect, and an architect would design your blueprint, and then you would say, "But I want a wall this big, and I want an infinity pool like that," and he goes, "And where are you gonna build this house," and you say, "In Manhattan," and he goes, "Dude you're not allowed to build that house in Manhattan. [chuckle] It's gonna cost you $10 million, you can't do that." And you're like, "Well that could be a good house in Mexico or Mississippi, but not here." So an architect is important, that's why you need help. These four questions I'm about to give you are those, and then the architect doesn't build your damn house, they build the blueprint, and then the general contractor assigns all the people to do the work. And think of a book, I don't care if you're JK Rowling, Stephen King, James Patterson, you name an amazing author. Tim Ferriss didn't write his freaking book by himself. Just like you don't... Some people are like, "I'm Andy, I can build my house by myself," and two years later, that house is awesome. But you can get your book done real fast, that would be awesome, by getting some help. You need a writer, you need an editor, you need a formatter, you need a designer, you need a marketer.

0:22:00 TC: If you don't have these people on your team, it's like having the electrician, the pool guy, your painter, and your plumber all doing the same work, it doesn't make any freaking sense. So I'm gonna give you the blueprint questions on how to make sure you write the right book, but the whole first part of this is a caveat of warning, get clarity first. Okay? [chuckle] All right, any questions before I answer these four 'cause I know I've been ranting again.

0:22:20 KF: No. I'm excited. I'm excited to hear them.

0:22:24 TC: All right, I just don't know how to shut the hell up, so I'm like... I gotta breathe every once in a while. [laughter] Okay. Here's the four questions. I'm gonna give 'em quickly, and they're caveman questions, I'm a dude so I can only... I gotta keep things real simple, there's four words, actually there's five. And then I'll go into them a little more depth. Who? What? Why? And what's next? Who, what, why, and what's next? Okay, first question, who is your book for? So people get all fired up, and they wanna go write a book. Great, who is it for? Now, I can tell you that I had two conversations with people today, four yesterday, who were talking to me and I'm doing a consultation with them on their book. And they don't shut the hell up about it, they love their story, they love their thing, and, hey, you know what, they got hit by lightning and they survived, they overcame bankruptcy, they were born a poor black kid, and they grew up, something awesome, right? And amazing stories. But that is not where you start your book, your book has nothing to do about you, at least that shouldn't have. It is gonna be all about you and whatever you make is awesome, but you wanna think about your ideal reader. Who is the perfect person to read your book? Now, I asked this question to a lot of people, typically the answer is, "Everybody." [laughter]

0:23:41 TC: Like, "I want everybody to read my book." Well, this is a problem in marketing, too, man. You said what are the tips of strategy for marketing, and business, and getting ahead in all of that. Decide who you wanna serve, who's your ideal perfect avatar person to read this book. I'll ask people like, "Okay, you say everybody would love your book, great. My daughter is 10, would she like your book?" And they're like, "Sure," and I'm like, "Really? Even my daughter?" "Well, okay, well maybe not your daughter." So I'm like, "Okay, so people over 10. My father-in-law is in his 70's, would he like this book?" And like, "Well yeah, he'd like it." I'm like, "Do you actually want to work with my father-in-law?" She's like, "Well not really." And so I'm like, "So okay, who's the person you really want to read this book? Like, who's your ideal, who's your best client. Or who do you want to be your best client? So think of a wow client." One of buddies makes millions of dollars and I interviewed him on one of my podcasts called 'Race to Seven Figures', and I asked the question, "If you had to start all over from scratch and you had nothing, how would you do it?" And he said he would find out what to sell and who to sell it to, and then pick up the phone and start selling it.

0:24:49 TC: By the way, just as an out, but he said you have a specific person that you serve, and check out this complete mastery, he's like, "You ask them what they want," wait for it, [chuckle] "And then you give it to them." He's like, "That's phenomenal marketing." Marketing is not this confusing thing, and I know we were talking offline before this started that people get overwhelmed with marketing. Marketing is communication. That's all it is. And if you're talking to your wife or a dude or a little girl or an old man or whatever it is, you talk to them in a different tone. I know in my house I didn't even know I had a tone until I got married, and apparently I have a tone.

[laughter]

0:25:27 TC: Sometimes I say shit and she doesn't like that. I'm like, "Really? I just spoke?" She's like, "I don't like the way you're talking to me." I'm like, "What do you mean?" "Don't bring that tone in my house." "I didn't even know I had a tone that was not allowed in my house." [chuckle] But it's the who. Who do you... Are you writing your book for? Most people miss this mark. And for those of you who want a shortcut, for most of us, and this isn't everybody, 'cause you might have an audience that's not you. But an insight to most people is, look in the mirror when you're brushing your teeth. Next time that you do that, hopefully it's night or this morning or whatever. That dude or that gal maybe a few years ago might be a phenomenal reader for your first book. The person that you used to be, that has already gone through the fire and that you now know you can help beyond a shadow of a doubt. Now that may not be for everyone, you might be a dude and you serve women, that's fine. But it's an insight and a shortcut to a lot of people. I can't tell you how much... How sometimes people work with me for time and they're like, "I'm my avatar! Just a few years ago." And I'm like, "Really? I thought we started that with the first day." [chuckle] But... So who you write your book for is key.

0:26:40 TC: I asked you guys before we even started this podcast, I said "Who's showing up here, can I curse? Can I not curse? Like who am I talking to? Am I talking to business owners?" And you said that my bio resonated with you guys and your audience, so I'm like, "Bitchin! This sounds to me like I can just be myself. Like I don't have to try to be something else." And you guys are like, "Yeah, fuckin go for it." So I think that's a really key part that people miss. Your book has an audience right for that person because if you're writing for Christians and you can't drop the F bomb, then that's awesome, don't drop the F bomb. I don't care how much you like it, it's not yours, it's your audience and you write for them. Let me breathe again, see if there's anymore questions, and I'll go on to the other three.

0:27:22 JJ: No, man. Spot on. I'm loving the approach of identifying your avatar and your buyer persona first and foremost before you get started, and then the very plain and simple advice your guest for the 'Race to Seven Figures' podcast episode and on your Greatness Quest podcast, ask them what they want. Find out who they are, ask them what they want, and then give it them, is simple but spot on.

0:27:54 TC: It's spot on, man. This guy had to start over from scratch at one stage and I know this 'cause I saw him take on some new business and new success, moved to Australia, and then he lost everything and he was like, "Oh, shit." And then instead of just thinking he knew how to build it all back, he went to his new... It was a client he knew, the type of client he knew, and he went to them and he asked them questions. The first thing he did is he surveyed his questions... Or his ideal audience and he found out what they needed now. And the way they said it now. Marketing is communication, so everybody today gets an opportunity, and let me shift this also into making money with your book. 'Cause let's get somebody some tangible shit that you don't just have to... Don't go into the drawing board and go to... I got whiteboards all around me, I love creating shit, but that's a problem with enterprenuers. Oftentimes you build shit and we're not selling anything. So the way that you celebrate this is everybody, today, is having a conversation with the publisher. I'm the publisher. I have a company called Epic Author Publishing, and I wanna tell your story. I wanna help you tell your story. I wanna publish your book.

0:29:00 TC: So now you can say you're just on a podcast with a publisher who thinks your story matters and that you matter and that you matter, and that you better freakin' get out of your own way and publish your damn book. 'Cause the biggest platform on the planet where people go online to buy stuff is Amazon, and they search for problems they want solved or results they want to get, and your shit's not there. I don't care how good you are at it, your book's not there, and it could be. And it could be positioned so they could find you and you could partner with a billion-dollar company like Amazon who can't wait to have you freaking sign your book up there, your new book, even before it's done. That's a key insight here. Declare to the world that it's out there and then they'll promote you to your ideal target audience who's trying to search for problems they want solved and results they wanna have, and they find you and your stuff. So I tell your audience to stop being selfish, stop trying to be perfect, that's why I took the time to answer that question about... I went back to my grandfather and doing a video with bad hair and a cold sore 'cause I'm like, "You know what? I freaking did it," and everybody has the chance today to do a marketing activity called a declaration, which is phase one of declaring to the world that you're writing a book.

0:30:10 TC: I also got this... I stole it from my... This friend of mine I just told you about as well, you call your mom, man. Go on social media today, post on Facebook and say, "I'm writing a book. Just got off the podcast with this publisher and I'm all excited, fired up, I'm gonna write a book." Post it. You're gonna get love, man. Call your mom and say, "Mom, I'm all excited. I'm writing a book," or you call maybe a mentor. [chuckle] Call somebody and tell the world though, declare to the world that you're publishing a book about, fill in the blank. About money, about real estate, about my business, about the next level of whatever you're into. One of my clients came to me last year or earlier this year, as on February, and she said, "Trev, I'm excited about writing book. I need to get this done, I need to do that for my brand. What should it be about?" My first consultation, I went trough these questions with her, and I'm still on the first one, which is, "Who do you help?" but I gave her this gift as well, which was, "Declare to the world you're publishing a book." And everybody who gives you a thumbs up [chuckle] or a smiley face and says, "Wow! What's it about?" those are leads. These are people you get to communicate with and follow up with.

0:31:19 TC: And I actually told Lisa after our call, her name's Lisa Chastain, I gave her her goal to go do and I said, "Go... You can't hire me right now. You need to now... " She paid me for the session, but I'm like, "Go out there and tell the world about your book. Follow up with all those leads and make sales. Sell your stuff, you got awesome stuff, go sell it." And I like for people to sell high-ticket shit. If you sell stuff for a dollar or $10 or $100, it's tough, man. I don't know if you do the math on this, but to make a million bucks, you've got to a sell million one-dollar things. [chuckle] But if you sell a thousand dollar thing and you sell 10 of those, you just made 10 grand. That's kinda cool. I like... My first book is called High-Paying Clients. Like how to go get them? How to find them, where they are, where you go fishing for them, what do you say them, how do you attract them, how do you close them? It's a great book. It's one of the reason that made good money on the back of that was because people want that stuff. And declare to the world today you're publishing a book on something. "I'm not sure yet. It's either gonna be real estate, being a father, or be... Or freaking groundhogs 'cause I think those are amazing," [chuckle] and then you interact with your audience. They're gonna go, "What the hell? Groundhogs?"

0:32:20 TC: I'm like, "But I would be interested in that real estate book," or, "Fuck you, I think you're a bad father," or whatever. You get some feedback and then you start to interact with them and you're like, "Hey, what do you think?" And then you say, "Hey, you wouldn't want some help with your groundhogs, would you?" And they're like, "I don't have a groundhog," and you're like, "Do you know anybody who likes groundhogs?" I don't know. But then you ask them so they're either you're lead to someone else or they're your client and they go. I used to sell this energy drink. It was a healthy energy drink. And the bad thing about this energy drink is it... A couple bad things. It tasted bad. [laughter] I gave it to somebody and they spit it out. Nine out of 10 people would be like, "This tastes like shit." So it was were like... Okay, that was problem. And then it also had a lot of niacin in it and it's a kind of niacin the gives great energy, but you get a niacin flush, do you guys know what that is? Okay, it's like getting poison ivy all of your body. [chuckle]

0:33:12 KF: That's not good.

0:33:14 TC: And so you break out in a rash and itch all over. It's really good for you, really healthy.

[chuckle]

0:33:19 TC: And so figure... We had to figure out how to sell that stuff and so what we did is we found that people who got on the energy drink and drank it for a while, you'd mix this powder with water, they'd lose weight. They'd lose 10 pounds, twenty pounds, fifty pounds, hundred pounds, hundred fifty pounds, and then their doctors were taking them off of their medications. So like sexy young people who are all skinny and ripped already, they didn't give a shit 'cause it didn't taste good at first. The fat people would... And come on, everybody's got a little extra weight on them, so I'm not throwing anybody under the bus. You know if you're fat, sorry, [chuckle] but they would... They'd drink it and be like, "Holy crap, I think it tastes good." It taste sweet after they drink it for a while. Their body chemistry would start to change and what used to be acidic and taste sour or sweet or bitter would end up tasting good over time and their doctors were taking them off their medications. And we said, "Well shit, let's stop selling this to skinny people, skinny, young 20-year-olds, and sell it to people that have extra weight on them." Now when we sold this, just by the way, when we went out and said "hey I notice you're fat, would you like to take this energy drink? It'll help you lose weight," that didn't work too well.

0:34:25 TC: It's like going to a bar and being like, "Hey, I'm horny and trying to have sex. Who here wants to have some of that? Like did you see my car?" Just a really cool move you can try [chuckle] at home. If you're single it's frickin' awesome. Works every time. But instead, we go to them and say, "Hey, I'm real... " We'd ask them a really powerful question, they're called the seven magic words, "Who do you know we can help? I'm all fired up, I got this cool energy drink, it helps people lose weight, you wouldn't know anybody who'd want to that, would you?" And they'd go, "Me," and you know they're three hundred pounds and you can tell most of really thick obesity fat, not like fricking Rock, he's like three hundred pounds, where you're like, "Holy shit, I hope he doesn't eat me," but you're like, "Holy shit, I hope this freaking Jabba the mutt doesn't eat me." But they go, "Me," and you're like, "Really? You wanna lose weight? I had no freaking idea." So you get to follow up with everybody who gives you a thumbs up on your new book and if you go, "Hey, you wouldn't wanna know how to make some more money, would you? 'Cause I'm writing a book about it. Can I interview you for my book? You seem like a total bad ass."

0:35:28 TC: "Hey, I'm writing a new book," and this is phenomenal tour. I went to two conferences recently and I saw bad asses up on stage and most people are there trying to hand out their business card and, "Hey, man, this is me. Get my thing. Can I sell you some real state," or a car whatever the hell they do. I don't even bring business card. I don't even have freaking business card 'cause nobody's interested in me, they're all interested in them, and instead of shopping for freaking clients, I'm looking for mentors, baby. I know the next level. I'm looking up on stage, I'm like, "Look at that bad ass," and instead being a monkey and following him like a cow like everybody else and, "I can't wait to talk to the guru after he gets off on stage," I'm that guy that moves. That's not me. I think it's awesome, go stand in line, but I cant handle it. I go up to them after this crowd clears and I'm like, "Hey, my name is Trevor. That was really good. Thank you very much for that amazing thing," and then they say something, 'cause I compliment them 'cause I thought they're awesome and I'm like, "By the way, I am writing a new book right now, and you can be perfect for it. Love that story, could I interview you for my book?"

0:36:29 TC: See, that's marketing. That's powerful, freaking bad ass marketing, and then I can tell them, there was this guy in particular and there were like five of them just recently, I'm like, "I'm looking to hire somebody that might be able to do the shit you do. Could we talk about that as well?" And so now I'm searching for mentors that are bad asses and I'm positioning myself much differently in the marketplace just by saying, "I am writing a book." So when I say that your book can be your most powerful marketing tool, I'm trying to give you some insight. Call your mom, post it on Facebook, follow up with people, find out if they're interested in shit. Just don't try to tell, "Hey, I know you're fat, I know you're broke, I wanna sell you something that sucks," but, "Who do you know might want some of this? Who do you know might wanna be a featured case study in here? Who do you know who might wanna be... Who's a bad ass in this thing that I can interview, 'cause I wanna start a new podcast, I wanna start a new book, I wanna figure this shit out. I've been failing now for a long... " Be authentic about where you are, don't bullshit people.

0:37:22 TC: You may be like, "I decided to write a book about this, I know nothing about it, but it's gonna be awesome. I can't wait and I need to find the biggest bad asses out there that I can interview. Can I talk to you?" And then you record those interviews, you make great relationships, and these are new promotional partners for your book. 'Cause they can't wait to have their freaking story told [chuckle] and help promote your book. So hopefully you guys are liking this, this is bad-ass stuff, but this is also talking about that who, which is, "Who are you writing the book for?" 'Cause then you need to know who you're targeting and who you're gonna ask for leads from when you post this on social media or you go to the next networking event, and instead of being like everybody else, stand out and say you're publishing your own book. I'll breathe again.

0:38:03 KF: Good stuff, good stuff. So the who I got that down, so the next item on the list would be the what.

0:38:13 TC: Right. So what's your book about? And you get to decide and you get to ask. Lisa Chastain, who talked to me in February, did that and she posted on Facebook once and then she followed up with those leads, posted on it again, she made $12,000 in 30 days. She didn't have a title, didn't have a book cover, didn't have a table of contents, she didn't even really know what it was gonna be about, but she made 12 grand. What's your book about? Draw a line in the sand, and I'll give everybody the same... An idea of the same thing for an avatar, if you're brushing the teeth in a mirror, might be one for you, might be. Maybe what your book should be about is what you do best. Don't hold it back. My fear when I wrote my first book was to put all my best shit in there, that everybody would steal it. I did... One of my clients... Or one of my publishers, one of the people in my publishing team is a phenomenal writer, and she was interviewing me for her podcast and for an article that she did in like Entrepreneur magazine or Huffington Post or something like that. We jumped off our interview and she goes, "Trev, you gotta hold something back, man. Don't tell everybody your secrets. You gave too much, hold it back," and I was like, "You got the wrong mentality here, girl."

0:39:28 TC: Serve, put your best stuff in your book, the scariest shit, the stuff that you charge the most money for, put it all in there and don't put too much in there. Give them what they need to get from point A to point B 'cause if you identify what your book is... Who your book is for and what it's about, your book should be, I'll give you question number three, "Why should somebody read it? Why do they care enough to read it?" And there's two things about why. Why are either problems people want solved or results that they want. So your book needs to... And the cover of your book and the title of your book and your conversation about it needs to solve problems, that's why they are gonna pick it up. If they don't understand who it's for, what it's about, and why they should read it, I promise you... It's like you go to a website, go to a brand-new website, you go there, everybody's done this, you've gone to a website, you put some freaking link on Facebook, [chuckle] and then you click on something and you're like, "What the fuck is this?" That's the first thing you say, you're like, "What is this? What is this?" And the second question you ask... This is a great marketing branding question. These three things come up for everybody on a book, on a website, on your marketing materials. What is it, what is it about, and what am I gonna do next?

0:40:43 TC: A little extra for everybody on testing your marketing. What is it? What's it about? And what am I gonna do next? I just recently bought a new house in Tampa, and then just in time for the hurricane so it smashed in my ceilings so that was amazing. But for the first time in a decade, I've been shopping for a new bed. Up until that time, you couldn't have freaking interested me in a new bed no matter what 'cause I didn't want one, but now that I'm looking for one, I'm interested. So I had gone to a website about a bed, I'm like, "What is it? What's it about? About beds? I'm gone. What am I gonna do next? I'm not interested." But now that I'm looking for one, you've got my attention. Most of the people that we talk to aren't interested in your shit right now, but when they are, you wanna capture their attention. So your book and your website and whatever, in all of your marketing, they need to understand who you're talking to. You do need to understand it. They need to know that they're talking to you. When you're speaking to them, that it sounds like them and they like your language and communication style, and then your book addresses problems they want solved and results that they want to get, and then they're like, "Oh my gosh. Where have you been all my life?"

0:41:47 TC: And the coolest thing about this is all of this marketing and all of this making money stuff happens starting today and tomorrow and next week and when you finally decide to do your cover, and then the week after that, and then the month after that, and then when your eBook comes out, it happens after that, and then the podcast comes out and it happens after that, and then it happens again the second week of your podcast, and then it happens after the paperback comes out, and then you decide to redo your book, and then you realize you left [chuckle] a typo on the cover and you're like, "Ah," then you relaunch your book and you say... You celebrate every phase, from idiot to, "I just think this is kinda cool and I wanna write a book about it," all the way up until you're the ultimate black belt badass at your thing. It's marketing, it's interaction and engagement. Most people think a book this big, daunting task of writing a book. When you were saying that, I'm like, "No, man, you're not Ernest Hemingway. You don't need to go on sabbatical in the woods and do drugs, and frickin' stay up and write your book." You can interact with people today. You talk to the people and you interact and engage with them.

0:42:50 TC: We live in this world of marketing and communication, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, something, and have a conversation, and you're engaged in the most powerful marketing you can possibly have. Seth Godin, what it is he gets asked a lot, he's the author of Tribes and Purple Cow, and pretty popular, most people know of him, especially in the entrepreneurial community. And he said a lot of people come to him and they say, "How do you make the bestselling book? How do you build a business behind it and whatnot?" And he said, "Write a great book that helps one person get a phenomenal result." That's how you sell a million copies of your book, is you serve one and then they love it and they freaking rave for someone else. So what goes in this book, how do you know how to write the right book? Don't guess. Don't quietly, secretly, silently write your book in the dark. Only in the midnight. "I'm up till midnight writing my book." That's baloney, man. Instead, start today, marketing your book by declaring, drawing a line in the sand saying, "I'm doing one." And then you're hung, you're screwed now. I'm screwing everybody too, you're gonna go, "Fuck that guy, just fucking... "

[laughter]

0:43:55 TC: "I guess now I gotta write a book. Dammit, I don't think I got time." When you get clarity, my clients typically get their books done in 30 days or less 'cause we give them the blueprint of what to go do specifically. Instead of masturbating and wasting time and doing all the wrong shit, you now know specifically what goes in your book 'cause you ask and answer these questions, and then you fricking rip it. It's done 'cause this stuff is inside of you, and if it's what your story is and what you do best, and you interview badasses or somebody that you want to be your client, you can leverage your book in your most powerful marketing tool. Everybody, starting today, regardless of whether you go get my new book, regardless of whether you're coming to my event, regardless if you ever go to... Just fricking do this and pretend you invested some real money in my advice, and you'll go fricking create some amazing results.

0:44:44 KF: Awesome. Thanks for sharing that with us, that is value there. And yes, you are spot on about how people do perceive advice, the worth of it and how much they invested, and that is worth a ton of money, so I appreciate you sharing that with our audience.

0:45:02 TC: Yeah, baby. I do the same thing, man. I get something for free and I'm like, "Meh." I pay for it, and I'm like... When people pay, they pay attention.

0:45:10 KF: That's the truth. So let's talk real quickly about your book 'Big Money', with your book without selling a single copy, and in the intro on Amazon, I was checking this out, you write the average self-published author makes less than $100 per year, which is super, super...

[chuckle]

0:45:31 KF: Why would I write a book? 'Cause I'm thinking here, if I get a number one best seller, I could probably add... If I get that status, then instantly I should be able to add the word "money" to my name like Floyd Money Mayweather. It's like I'm number one bestseller, I'm rolling it Jay-Z style, but that's not necessarily the case. And so you're addressing this, without even selling a single copy, making big money. So let's talk about this book and what it's about and dive in into there 'cause I'm sure there are some segues from what you just explained to us that are there, but share with us a little bit about that.

0:46:12 TC: Yeah, brother. And I'm gonna answer the fourth question, which was "Who, what, why, and what's next?" as well in this. What's next is the powerful money-making thing in your book. Your book is the beginning. Your book is not the end. Most authors, and that's why I put that in there, those are statistics, at least if the Google is accurate. [laughter] I haven't met everybody in the world, but if the Google is accurate then I pulled those numbers from something legit. I think I probably cited what I did 'cause I typically try not to just pull every number out of my ass. But what most authors think is that their book is gonna bring the endorsement deals. They think... They watch Kevin Costner's Field of Dream and if they build it, they will come. But it's baloney, your ideal client is not Shoeless Joe Jackson, [laughter] and you're not a fricking... You don't live in a fantasy Hollywood world, that's not the way it works. So when you build it, they won't come. If you don't freaking tell anybody about it. Best widget in the world, but if you don't tell anybody, you're screwed. Nobody knows that your product and services are amazing 'cause you don't tell anybody, 'cause you're scared of marketing, you don't know what to say. So say something, something is better than nothing. Now, what does that book talk about and what does, "What's next," mean?

0:47:37 TC: Most people think they gotta make big money with their book. I work with a lot of speakers and a lot of them... I just had a conversation with one today and I'm like, "What do you sell?" And she said, "I do speaking." I'm like "So you get paid to speak?" "Yes." "What do you make?" And so she told me how much she makes and I'm like, "Okay, with this new book you have that have all playing," and baby, she's done with this book. She's got the next three months, she's like dotting Is, crossing Ts, and making it even more beautiful, but she doesn't know how to make it a powerful marketing tool. She hasn't... She's not really telling that many people about it yet. That's not true, she is talking to some... She did a TEDx talk and everybody thought she was awesome and her story was awesome, so she has some fans. But she's not makin any freaking money 'cause she's not selling them anything that they want! Like c'mon, the book is the beginning. So the important part about this... Imagine going to... What's that pyramid in Chichen Itza... Or that's what it's called, in Mexico. There's these pyramids with the... You can walk up the pyramids in Mexico. You guys seen that? I've done that once in, yeah, the Yucatan Peninsula, that's where it was.

0:48:39 TC: You go up there, you get to the Yucatan, you're like, "Look at the pyramid, oh my god, that's so great," and you run up, and you go to the first step and you jump up there, and you're like, "Ah, I made it," and then you go home. No, that's freaking baloney. You go up to the top, man. The book is the beginning. The book is the foundation. The book is step one. Most people don't get this. They think their book is the end all, be all thing, and I get it, I've been there. I'm the guy that thought, "When I have it, everyone will come." No they won't. So you gotta think about the business behind it. What I did in 'Big Money With Your Book', without selling a single copy, is instead of... I like telling a lot of stories and I tell my stories, I tell my client stories, and then that get's a little ego-anky, where it's like, "Look at that guy, he fucking won't shut up. That dude's telling how cool he is and how cool all of his clients are, and how they all make money." So instead, I interviewed five badasses for that book, who I have... One of them was my client... Had been my client, one of them now is my client. One of them is one of my mentors. But I interviewed people from five different walks of life. One of them is in the hotdog business. He has a hotdog stand, man.

0:49:44 TC: His first book is called 'Hotdogs Saved My Life', And he made $53,000 in like 30 days or 15 days or something, I gotta look in my book to see what the statistic was. And I interviewed that dude for this book 'cause it was the business behind it. Excuse me. Then I interviewed a guy who's in sales, and he went from losing a $100,000 a year to making $1.7 million, and the shift was he published books. Now, the books were part of it, but it's the business behind it. It's the business beyond. Do you remember... You guys know the name Al Gore probably, and have you heard of An Inconvenient Truth? Do you remember that?

0:50:25 KF: Sure, yep, absolutely.

0:50:25 TC: Did you ever see that movie? Or his PowerPoint? On global warming, you know what it's about, though, right? Okay. So I finally... No one was in the house and I freaking got it on Red Box or the library or something. And I'm watching that dang thing a few years ago, and I'm actually sitting on the edge of my seat. Al Gore had me entertained, and then he had me all fired up, and I'm like, "Man, the world is melting!" I'm like, "This sucks. We gotta do something about it, I feel like a jackass. I need to change things." And so then, the end of the video, he's like, "The world. We're melting it! Ice caps! Killing the world. We suck. Gotta change it." And I'm like, "Yeah, man!" I'm all fired up, and then it was the end of the movie, end of the show, and I was like, "What?" So I go to the DVD, and I'm like, "Did I fucking miss it? Am I stupid?" And I looked on the extras and I can't find anything. I'm like, "What the fuck did Al Gore tell me to do? He didn't say write your congressman? He didn't tell me to do shit," I'm like, "Screw you, Al Gore!" I'm like, "What the hell, am I fucking stupid?" And so I go online, and I'm looking for, [laughter] "What does Al Gore say to do to stop global warming?" And I'm like, "I don't know. He fucking says it's a big problem, though." And I'm like, "Well what does he do?"

0:51:31 TC: He said change your light bulbs to fluorescent light bulbs and go start driving a Prius, and I was like, "Fuck, this sucks. Screw you!" So he's got a great book and it's... If you're Vice President of the United States, you can write a book on freaking anything you want and it'll be awesome. You can put a shit in a box and freaking sell it, and it'll be great. But if not, you wanna give your audience a place to go. What's behind your book? I can't tell you how many fricking clients I have come to me, who've gone with traditional published authors, and they come to me and they're so excited, they're like, "I have a traditional... I didn't self-publish... I went with a... I got a book deal." "How much did you get for your book?" "$1,500," they're like, "$1,500." And I'm like, "Okay, cool." And this is someone who used to work for the Bush administration and went over to Iraq, and then taught them media communication shit, like a serious freaking dude. And he wrote his book. For two years the publisher has their hands on this book, he didn't tell anybody about it. "Shh, don't tell anybody yet," 'cause he's not sure when the book is gonna come out. And then he didn't like the cover, but he didn't own it anymore 'cause they bought it so he has no fricking choice there.

0:52:32 TC: And then I'm like, "Well, what do you sell? What's the back of this?" And he's like, "Well, I'm consulting and back end government stuff like that." And I'm like, "All right, so you wanna be a consultant? Yeah. What do you charge?" I'm like, "Did you have your website in the book?" Fucking nothing, man. Not his website. Not anything. No call to action, it doesn't really sell anything. It doesn't teach you shit. It's his memoirs about being there. And there's... It's a freaking great book, I got it on my shelf, but he hired me, he needs some freaking help 'cause he needs some marketing help 'cause nobody cares about you and your story and your amazing stuff. When you go to get an ice cream cone, you go to Baskin Robbins or fricking Ben & Jerry's or whatever it is, and you go get ice cream, you're like, "You know what, can you put some sprinkles on there?" See your stories are like sprinkles. People think that's where you start with the book. That is not the case. Nobody goes to fricking 31 Flavors and fricking buys... "Can I have a bowl of sprinkles, please?" That's all your bullshit stories with no context. What should happen is you ask and answer these questions: Who, what, why, what's next, where are you driving them? What are the next steps?

0:53:39 TC: What could have Al Gore told me to go do that he got me all fired up and part of the Facebook group, and part of a something, doing something, taking action, wearing new t-shirts and changing the world. Figure the vision and mission of your book first. Now you get to start making that happen and make money with it today. Find a way to sell some kind of product or service, and if you don't know what the hell to do, go read 'Big Money With Your Book' because I interviewed some badasses from all different types of... Walks of life. One of my new friends, and she's actually now a client, her name is Alana Selke, she's probably one of the richest people that I interviewed in the book. She makes a fortune, and she's into spiritual connectedness. And she... Every picture has... Her new book is called 'Dream Big', but she has made... She is an action taker. She's not just an airy, fairy freak. She's fricking awesome. She has these visions of what she wants to create and she makes them happen. It's like the law of attraction on steroids with gal, she's amazing 'cause she takes action. Go get that book and you'll learn some stuff to sell behind it, but it's like courses, consulting, product, programs, something beyond your book is where the money is.

0:54:52 TC: My daughter's 10-years-old, she wanted to buy a new computer, it's $1,000, and she wanted the new Apple, whatever the heck it is, and I'm not buying it for her because I'm a cheap ass. No, I'm just kidding [chuckle] 'cause I want her to respect something and so I said, "Honey, how many... If you sell one of your books, how much money do you make?" And let's just say for arguments sake she makes $10. I'm like, "Okay, how many books do you need to sell to get that computer?" She's like, "Okay," she did the math, she's like, "100." I'm like, "All right." So I did a business with my daughter where we teach people to become kid's book authors and we teach the course together, and my daughter has a mission to help 100 kids become published authors. It's called Super Kids Books Publishing, kinda cool. And I said... And let's say her course is 100 bucks, I'm like, "Honey, how many courses do you need to sell to make $1,000?" And she's like, "10." And I was like, "All right. Well which sounds easier and which would you rather do," and she goes, "Well, it's probably easier to find 10 kids, but I wanna do both." I'm like, "Yes, that's my girl. [chuckle] She wants to do both." But you gotta have something beyond your book. People don't think it and then they're confused in their messaging.

0:56:02 TC: And I'll tell people, "Hey, man, tell me about your book in 10 words or less," and they blather on and I don't fuckin understand what the hell they're saying, and most people will blow smoke up their skirt and say, "Oh, that sounds amazing," whatever, and they walk away going, "I don't know what the fuck they just said." But I have the courtesy, the honesty, to go, "I love you, I support you, I think you've got an amazing story, I can't wait to make this happen, but I didn't understand one fucking word that just came out of your mouth." No, I don't say that. [chuckle] I'm a bit more gentle. [laughter] I'm scaring the shit out of... Someone's like, "I'm not fucking talking to that guy, he's mean." No, I'm not mean. I want to make sure that your message makes sense. Everybody listening right now has a message and something that you do great and is amazing and your message matters, and you need to figure out a way to tell your story. You don't have to do that on your own, you can get some help. If you go scoop up my book, I'll ship it to you, just pay for shipping, I know these guys are gonna put the link on there, but I will help you not just come up with the ideas and get all fired up, but I've got some place to take you. And it's the promised land where you make more money, you get a message out there that changes the world, and they don't happen in sequence.

0:57:09 TC: It's not like, "Take my numbers. Do one, two, three, then finally, by fuckin' 400, you can finally make a dollar." No, no, no no, it starts today. Today you can start. It all happens simultaneously. Sell the vision and the mission for what you care about today and test it by talking to people and risking that you might not look good and perfect and polished and whatever, and now you're being a badass. Now you're communicating with authenticity and you will stand out in the marketplace like nobody else. Hopefully you have the follow-through to finish what you say the hell you're gonna do. So if you say you're gonna write a book, frickin' get it done and you find someone like me who'll hold your hand and help you along the way. And I didn't do it because I was great at this at first. I'm just like everybody else here, except maybe dumber. I had to get a lot of help to figure this out and I have a team of people now to help me and I can't wait to help you guys.

0:58:00 KF: Awesome, so we'll include that link in the show notes and probably in the body of the podcast episode when we launch it. So be on the lookout for that, folks. Now, just to get this for clarity purposes, the methodology here would be get your book, go through your book, and then that mentor that you say that is paramount of having, you can be that mentor. That's your purpose, that's your skin in this game, that's the what next to your book, correct? That's what you're looking for is to help mentor me. I wanna write a book and I'm gonna read your 'Big Money With Your Book', and go and say, "Great, I'm all fired up. I've got these steps and I need a mentor," I would then say, "Trevor, we need your help, I need your help to make this happen."

0:58:52 TC: Yeah, I'm your dude on that. My job's to help you do it really quickly. I've got... I put on a lot of free content for that. I've got a webinar, I do trainings, I sell a membership site where I help you, I'm transitioning things so I have a very low-ticket option to help you with that that's fricking badass. So that's gonna be coming out soon. My bread and butter right now is to mentor people to do this, and I work with you for six months and I help you get it done. For those of you who scoop up this book quickly, I have an event coming up that you get... And this may not be available to everyone because once tickets are sold out at the free level and they're filled up, and that's gonna happen very quickly, so you gotta scoop it up, on the back-end of getting this book, you get two tickets to Epic Author Summit, and that... You get to spend three days with me and my publishing team, smarter people than me that help me get this stuff done and we help you do three things at this event: Meet your mission, master your marketing, and make more money. And it's all around, "How do you leverage books in that?" Whether you have a book or you don't have a book, this is an amazing event for you. I don't care if you've got a dozen books, this is gonna be transformational.

1:00:02 TC: You remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? I watched the movie recently and he gets this golden ticket in a chocolate bar, and I was like, "Man, that's cool." So if you get this book, you get a golden ticket, and now you register that golden ticket and it's good for you and a guest to show up at Willy Wonka's... Sorry, Trevor Crane's freaking factory. [chuckle] And I'm going to help you, I want you to be all fired up with no place to go, and if you watch the videos that I did on this, I dance around like a stupid Oompa Loompa on some of the videos 'cause I'm like thinking... I thought that was funny, [chuckle] and I think it's embarrassing, but I don't care. So yeah, and then people can always reach out to me, they can find me if you just Google Trevor Crane, you will find my website, you will find my books, and you can reach out to me and ask for help and I'd love to give you some support.

1:00:49 KF: So when is the Epic Author Summit and where is it located?

1:00:53 TC: So regardless of when somebody gets this, this is going to be timeless. So Epic Author Summit will always be happening, I'll do at least one a year. So wherever... Depending on when you get this, this is a timeless training meant for you. So we'll try to keep the length that you have active forever, and then also Epic Author Summit available for whenever. In 2017, here in November we're doing it on the 10th, 11th, and 12th, and that's gonna be in Tampa, Florida, and it's going to be epic. If I have anything to do with this, it's going to be as good as I can fricking make it. [chuckle] And then tickets for this event are actually 3,500 bucks, so I'm very genuinely giving everybody a phenomenal gift. Tickets are going for free for a little bit, then they go up to... The price goes back up to $3,500. So scoop them up now, and if you don't get the free ticket, don't be pissed at me [chuckle] or anybody on the podcast here just because then they are gone and I'm sorry you missed out, but you can come, I'll give you some kind of phenomenal discount and bonus, so there will always be something there for you where you still feel served, and then you can still come and get a deal because if you came here, then I want to make sure you're taken care of.

1:02:04 KF: Awesome, awesome. Now Trevor, on your website you have a section about giving back, and I thought that was interesting because you've got some photos of you and it looks like your family in different places at different times and doing some charitable things, and you mentioned the importance of giving back. I wanted just to have you touch on that for a quick second.

1:02:23 TC: Thank you, brother, and I appreciate the research to look into that. It is something that's important to me, and actually, quite frankly, I think it's something that I'm shifting in my business currently to start putting at the front of my marketing and communication in my business. And that is that if you do business with a cause at the front of it, you have an opportunity to change the world. I think Tom's Shoes did this. They went ahead and said, "For every pair of shoes you buy, we will give a pair away," and there is a ton of examples like that. I just met a new... One of the gentlemen that was speaking on stage at a conference, as I just recently was talking about the power of cause and the power of purpose and the mission behind it, and those pictures in the video that you saw there that... Or whatever I have on the website where I talk about giving back, my wife and I got married in 2011 in November. Actually 11/11/11, 'cause I wanted to make sure I remembered the date.

[chuckle]

1:03:23 TC: On 11/11/11, we got married and we took our honeymoon to Panama, and on that honeymoon, let's say a couple of weeks later, a month later, whatever. Oh, it was a month later 'cause it was right on Christmastime, we knew we wanted to give back and so something we wanted that was going to be special was to find people in Panama that we could help and serve, and so when we went to go see some cool caves and we had gotten a bicycle to ride fricking from point A to point B, we saw these little naked kids run down on the side of the road right near this hut. And so we went over and talked to them and found out that there were a couple of families that lived there, there were like two families and... Like two parental groups and 24 kids living in these little huts that were built about eight, 10 feet off the ground, and they didn't speak any English, and I don't speak any Spanish except to ask for a beer and say, "No." [chuckle] And maybe curse. I know a couple of those. But then my wife was able to talk to them a little bit and so we went out and played Santa Claus that next day, or that night. We went and bought a whole bunch of food and presents. We bought whatever we could buy at the little local store, and then the next morning we rented a truck, or hired some truck to drive us over there, and we delivered boxes of food and all kinds of presents and toys and stuff.

1:04:49 TC: And we got pictures with them, and it was pretty emotional. My wife was crying because they were so grateful. We didn't want to be insulting at all, we were just trying to be cool and we more kind of wanted to drop it off, but they ended up just taking us in their home, and I got pictures of me holding a chicken and a little puppy dog, and little naked kids... A little boy's holding a Barbie doll and they're all wearing these Crocs type shoes in all these fluorescent colors and stuff, and it was just so rich and rewarding. And every year we try to do something like that. The year after that, we went to Mexico and my daughter was like five or six at that time, and we sponsored 200 kids that went to this school called the... I can't remember the organization, but it's in Puerto Vallarta, and we went with our family and we gave them... It wasn't Christmas dinner, but we were ladling soup and we paid for this... Like a Thanksgiving type of meal, again, around Christmas time, and we bought backpacks with all these school supplies. And so I think that if... That's what I think we are here on this planet to do, is to help and serve others, and if you are not helping somebody else make their life better, then you are wasting your time. And so everything we do has a cause behind it.

1:06:02 TC: And I don't typically promote that at the front end of my stuff, but I decided recently to shift, and so thank you for reminding me 'cause I want... My new business model will have and it's not... It's getting there. We're at the front end. Every single client that comes to me, a percentage of that will go towards kids in need. I love kids, I'm like a big kid myself, I do nothing but play with my daughter except when I'm trying to force her to finish the books [chuckle] she said she's gonna write. I just... I love kids and so everything we do is to support kids in need, and then my daughter puts a percentage of every book that she sells to also animals in need. She's so cat crazy she calls herself half-cat, so I think that the mission and vision of your book, the mission and vision of what you're most enthusiastic about in life and what cause you have, I don't care what it is, you can start to lead with that and talk about it, and people can care about you and love you for the good you're giving to the world. Tony Robbins does this. I once went to his event, and by the way, let's get back to the money on Tony Robbins, a book cost 20 bucks, okay? He said, "If you buy this book or pay for shipping I will donate that same money. In fact, I'll double it for charity," and he donates his money to charity, to Feeding America.

1:07:15 TC: And if you guys don't know Tony's story, the worst day of his life was when he was a young boy and his family didn't have enough money or food for Thanksgiving, and someone knocked on his door and brought him a box of food. And it was a horrible time because his stepfather at the time got really upset and it was this huge emotional trauma that he went through, and when Tony became successful at about 18, he went and gave back and he had... The richest day of his life was the day that he was able to give that back to a couple other families. And now the mission of his book and the mission of his business is to help feed people. I think he feeds every person in the county of San Diego and has for years. He's approaching a billion people served that he has fed, all proceeds from his book go towards that, and he partnered... One of his book mentors is one of my mentors, and he mentors people who are badasses that have bestselling books and have been on Oprah and come to him and say, "I need help. I'm broke, I'm not getting by, we don't have enough money to pay the rent," and you think they've got the perfect storm. New York Times bestselling author, been on Oprah, it's like you had your 15 minutes of fame, but they got nothing behind it so you can partner with...

1:08:26 TC: In one of his core strategies, partner with a nonprofit, your cause; in Tony's case, Feeding America. You get to beat your chest like King Kong and you get to look like Jesus 'cause you look fricking awesome, and you are for changing the world, and then on the back end of the free book, I went to Tony's event and he charges like... Let's say it was a $1,000 a ticket, I just went there, I bought five tickets one for me, my wife, some clients, and a partner of mine. Man, that was... That's five grand. Where's the money in the book? And then on the back end of that, he says, "Hey, do you want to join my Mastermind for $80? Do you wanna join my course or for 10 or 15?" So there's big money there, and as soon as you walk in the gate after you paid a grand to be there, and I paid more 'cause we had more people come, 'cause I wanted to be there, he then gave us his book. I'm like, "Dude, I already have it." [chuckle] But he gave his book, but now... And then it's so giving and it creates so much goodwill, and then, in this book... In his book he makes one recommendation. He goes, "Of all the places you can invest your money, the place I recommend you go is over here," and he doesn't hide from the fact that he has a partnership relationship with them.

1:09:32 TC: The company that's the brokerage companies that's an RIA that he actually recommends in that book went from like 50 million under that management to half a billion within the first 30 to 60 days that Tony published his book 'Money Master: The Game'. So there is a nonprofit cause type thing that you can support and you can tie it in. There is nothing bad about that that Tony is doing, it's all phenomenal and strategies that we can all grab and align with. So there's a lot of ways to use your book. Just scoop up the book, reach out to me and say,"Hey," or ask for some help and I'll gladly point you in the right direction. And I don't know if I'm the right guy for you, but I can definitely point you in the right direction where you can get some help.

1:10:18 JJ: Powerful stuff, powerful stuff. Hey, Trevor before we say goodbye, if you had one piece of parting advice for our listening audience, what would it be?

1:10:27 TC: Dude, good question. Let me ask you guys something 'cause you keep asking me questions. What... I get really excited about my whatever it is I think is exciting. Where do you call the biggest bullshit about what I said or what's the big problem that still exists in your mind listening to this? If you were your audience, and you are, what... Is there bullshit? What is it that I don't know? I don't think so. I'm still scared. Or what's that thing so I can make sure that my advice is around that subject.

1:11:00 KF: I think that... Yeah, taking action or the fear... Yeah, dude, that's... Getting started, that I feel... Because you've got me pumped up beyond awe and you're an exciting person to listen to. You... Without a doubt... There's no doubt in my mind, based on what you've told us today, you know what the hell you're talking about and how to get there. It's the fear of getting started or taking that action, that first step. That, I think, would be the biggest hurdle that anyone listening today would be facing.

1:11:31 TC: All right. How about you, Justin?

1:11:34 JJ: Completely agree 100%.

1:11:35 TC: All right, okay. So with that fear, what's the fear for either of you? Or what's the fear of the... Of the listener right now. 'Cause I'm not that guy anymore. I have no fear in this context. I put myself out there on a regular basis and say that I do stupid shit or that I just put it out there and it's sometimes not perfect or right. So what is the fear? Is it not knowing what to do next, not knowing what to say, not... What is... Try to have clarity around that. This is really awkward for me.

1:12:06 KF: One, I think the biggest fear is going to be the fear of failure. What if I do this? What if I make this announcement on Facebook and I do write this book and I do create something that's nice and I fail in... Well, I'm not one to subscribe to that fear of failure because I do shit that doesn't work all the time. There's that fear... I think enterprenuers, business owners have that fear of, "What if I invest my most precious resource, being time, into something that isn't going to be fruitful," and it's not... It's the embarrassment of, "Hey, I did something that I failed at." It's the hit to the ego, but then it's the time wasted. Yeah.

1:12:49 TC: The wasted time. That's it, dude. I think he nailed it. I think that a lot of your audience, as much as they don't wanna start taking the first step until they know that they can finish because they don't wanna fail by not getting it done or create something that sucks or that wasn't worth their time because, as I just said, a lot of people don't freaking know how to do next and you don't wanna invest an hour or hundred or a thousand hours and money into getting something done that doesn't bear fruit, is that fair enough?

1:13:13 KF: Sure, yeah.

1:13:14 TC: Okay. So then I gave four questions. Today, I gave some advice about marketing and branding and how to start. So if there's one... It's just not gonna be possible that you have clarity... That anybody listening right now has perfect clarity about how you're gonna build your dream house, okay? You don't know who your architect is. You don't know who is gonna help you do your roof. You don't know those things. But you can decide today that in the first step, and this is not a small step by any stretch and this is not bullshit, this is genuinely the first step, is decide that your book has to happen. I believe that every day that you are not sharing your greatness with the world is a day that you're hurting other people. After I filed my bankruptcy, I had lost a lot of self-confidence and I was trying to sell something new and I would go out there and I'd meet people who needed my help and somehow I'd fuck it up every time. 20 sales in a row, I lost. I was failing, man. I had a roof over my head, things weren't that bad, but I was... The 20th person that I failed with was this woman who said she needed my help and I knew I could help her and I gave her this great advice and then she chose not to buy from me and I wanted to blame her, "Stupid bitch, she didn't buy from me," [chuckle] but I couldn't... But I was more mad at me.

1:14:42 TC: I went into the car, remember I was at a coffee shop in the mall, and I went into the parking lot and I sat in the car and I cried. And I didn't cry 'cause I didn't make the sale, I cried because I felt like I'd punched her in the freaking stomach. She hugged me at the end of the interview, "Oh my God! It's so amazing. Thank you so much. Yeah, I'm not buying anything from you, but I've got what I need," and fricking on her way she goes. I think that when we overthink and analyze our stuff and don't get our message out there in the world, we're hurting others. See, I was overthinking it. I was over-packing people's backpack by giving them too much shit to do, then they'd go off and not know what to go do. So everybody today, you have two things to do. Number one is decide will you cut off all other options. You're gonna write a freaking book. You're gonna get a book. I don't care what it's about. I don't care if you think it's about puppies or profit or people or pools. I like to come up with things like that. Marshmallows, martians, money, Mohammed Ali, I don't care what your book is gonna be about. Decide that you're writing a book, then the second thing you gotta do is hang it out there. Do the scary thing. Make the declaration. Declare to the world you're writing a book.

1:16:00 TC: I don't care if you don't know what's it's about 'cause if you're confused if it's about money or puppies, that's cool. You can ask... Or groundhogs, that was a good one. I never said that before. Groundhogs. You then ask people and you talk to them and find out by talking to people. And now for those enterprenuers that they're like, "Jesus. God, I've been listening to you over for an hour, dude, and you still won't shut the hell up and I'm busy and I'm gonna be busy tomorrow. I'm gonna be busy the next day. The last thing I wanna do is waste my time on something like this." So don't think of it like that and don't waste your time. Don't pick up a pencil. Don't start writing your memoirs. Don't do that. The most powerful part of your marketing right now is to sell the vision and the mission of it, which means talk to others about what you already like talking about, what you're already awesome about, what the sweet thing is that you wanna do, and interview people that can become new badasses in your business or new, amazing case studies that you can feature in your new book. Just declare to the world that you are gonna do a book and then talk to those people. Don't just do it like most... I get on social media and I post on it and I don't fricking look at it again.

1:17:02 TC: But then I go back the next day and I go back and I actually love and like. Everybody gives me a thumbs up or make a comment hears back from me personally I read it. I respond. There's too many people don't say shit in this world and they're not... Nobody cares about them. If somebody loves you enough to give you a thumbs up or give you a comment on the post, I don't care if there's three people on your post, go love them back. And every day I go and I have my dream 25, the people that I think are badass that I wanna work with, and I go on social media and I don't go tell them what I think. I go like their stuff. That's another ninja move, by the way. But it's... I'm not trying to confuse everybody. Number one decide. Number two declare. And then the step three, if you want an extra credit, is keep talking to people about it. And don't start writing your book, just get yourself excited about it. Talk to others. Keep talking about it. When you go to the next networking event, stand up and say, "Hi, I'm Joe Bob and I'm... I founded this business and I'm writing a new book about puppies," and see what people say. They're gonna go, "What? You're doing what? No way." And you don't have to declare when it's coming out.

1:18:09 TC: Elon Musk got all fired up, he's like, "I'm gonna bring people to Mars." Like the fucking crazy guy, it's like, "What do you mean you can bring people to Mars?" "I'm gonna start solar city. We're gonna have the whole solar panel thing on everybody's roofs." Freaking did it. You know, "I'm gonna sell Teslas. They're going to be amazing electric cars." I thought that 10 years ago and I'm like, "Fuck, I wanna do that. That's awesome. I want a solar powered Hummer." I got a picture I drew with a crayon at an event where I'm like, "It'd be cool to have a solar powered Hummer." And I don't have shit. But Elon Musk went and said, "Guys, we're gonna have a Tesla out there, it's gonna be cheap, we're gonna sell it. It's gonna come out sometime, not really sure when. We haven't even built the factory that builds the batteries for these things, but if you guys want, you can buy one today." And inside of 30 days, he made... Okay, he had 500 million people... Or 500 thousand people, excuse me, give him a $1,000 on pre-ordering a car that didn't exist that was gonna be made from a factory that wasn't even made and he said, "I don't know when it's coming out. It might be two years, might be. But you'll be the first ones to get it. It's gonna be awesome."

1:19:11 TC: It takes balls to declare to the world that you're gonna get something done. But then you take action to follow up and you can figure out the how later. Go get my book. Come to my event. If you think I suck, then give me a great hate message, I could use more haters 'cause that's fucking awesome. That'll be good marketing. [chuckle] Say something really, really, really provocative 'cause then they can do a movie out of it or something. But just decide, declare, and then keep your feet moving, and don't get confused by writing your book when you're doing research and marketing and talking to people and interacting with your ideal target client. Find out what their pain points are, solve them, and then your book will be a badass book that solves phenomenal problems for your ideal target client.

1:19:57 JJ: Love it. Decide, declare, and keep on talking about it. Good stuff. Hey, Neon Noise Nation, we hope you enjoyed our conversation today with Trevor. Be sure to go over and check out his website at www.epicauthor.com. Trevor, man, it was awesome. Thanks so much for being on the show today. Thoroughly enjoyed your time, a ton of awesome value. The show notes from today will be available at neongoldfish.com/podcast. Until next time, this is Justin, Ken, and Trevor, signing off. Neon Noise Nation, we will see you again next week.

[music]

1:20:37 S1: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Neon Noise Podcast. Did you enjoy the podcast? If so, please subscribe, share with a friend, or write a review. We wanna cover the topics you wanna hear. If you have an idea for a topic you'd like Justin and Kent to cover, connect with us on Twitter at NeonGoldfish, or through our website at neongoldfish.com.

Neon Goldfish is an Inbound Marketing Agency with locations in Orlando, Florida and Holland, Ohio